One Day, Robots Will Cry
by Vaneles
Summary: It's been over eight years since he left. All she wants, is to see him one last time. Naruto loves Sakura like a sister, and would do anything to make her happy. Even hunting down his long lost friend just so she can have her one moment.


Ok. So it's been a very long time since I've been writing any stories of any kind lately. And I had this story finished and sitting on my laptop but I've decided that the whole story needs to be re-done. A few things have happened personally, so it's caused me to change quite a bit of what should happen in the story. And I think it's for the better. Well… maybe, maybe not. But here is a re-written prologue. I do apologize for falling off the face of the earth for about two years but it's been rough with school, work, and a two year old running around all while being a newly single mom. So… please accept my apologies.

**One Day, Robots Will Cry**

_**Prologue**_

Rain fell heavily from the dark sky, lightning flashed in the distance. The windows creaked when the dull rumble of thunder rolled through. Blue eyes stared out the window as another flash of lightning passed. The room he was in lit up momentarily before giving way to the darkness. "N-Naruto-kun?" Naruto turned to look over his shoulder and saw a woman standing there in a pale purple shirt and a pair of black capris. Her long black hair was left down, falling just above her hips. "Is something w-wrong?" she asked as she stepped into the room with him.

"Hinata-chan... go back to bed." he said forcing a smile for her.

"Tell me what's wrong?" she asked again. Her pearl eyes searched his own for an answer and she was relieved when he sighed and closed his eyes.

"I don't think that she's going to get better this time..." he admitted quietly.

She knew instantly who and what he was talking about. Her gaze fell to the floor. She was one of the few people who knew about _her _and what exactly was wrong. "What are you going to d-do?"

"I... I don't know what to do." he said ruefully. A sad smile crossed his lips as he turned fully to look Hinata in the eye. "I have a mission in mind but..." he looked down. He felt Hinata grab his hand and pull it to her chest before placing a gentle kiss on the top.

"Retrieval?"

He nodded. ''I made a promise. And I intend to keep it no matter what."

"I'd expect no less from the Hokage." She smiled sweetly at him and he fell in love all over again.

Hinata held his hand tighter. "What will you tell him?"

Naruto looked out the window as lightning flashed by again. He closed his eyes in thought and sighed. "Everything."

* * *

"Open the damn door!" Staring, or rather glaring, at the door before her, was a tall blond-haired woman with pale blue eyes. She wore a deep purple camisole shirt over a fish net tank top. Black shorts covered her upper thighs, while a matching purple skirt fell just below mid thigh. Black heeled sandals covered her feet and a silver chain sat low on her right ankle. "I swear if you don't open this door right now...!" she said as she banged on the door a few times. To her confusion, the door opened with a soft click and revealed an empty hall. "Hello?" She walked in and shut the door behind her. Walking into all of the rooms she searched for any sign of life. "You better not be hiding your chakra on me! I swear that when I find you, I'll kill you." She called out again.

She came upon the last room in the house when she caught the scent of vanilla and sandalwood. And the nauseating scent of alcohol. She opened the door and found a woman her age sitting naked in the bath tub, the water resting just under the edge of the tub rim. She was lying back against the edge with her long pink hair hanging over the side of the tub. Pale green eyes staring up at the ceiling blankly. "Oh honey..." she said softly.

"Ino...?" the pink-haired woman said quietly.

Ino walked over to the tub and knelt down next to the side. Her sky blue eyes softened as she reached in and pulled the stopper up to empty the cold water. She reached out to brush away a few strands of damp hair from the woman's face. "Come on. Let's get you out of this freezing water." she said as she pulled her friends body out of the tub and helped her to her feet. She wrapped a few towels around her body when she started to shiver. She grabbed another towel from the closet and set it on the woman's head and noticed the dazed look in her eyes. "Sakura... tell me you didn't." Ino started. But she had no need to finish when Sakura tilted her face away.

"I-Ino..." her voice cracked and slurred as she tried to talk.

Ino sighed as she began to towel dry Sakura's hair. "I'm going to have a talk with Naruto and Tsunade-sama. You living alone is obviously a bad idea. I'd let you live with me but I've got Chouji and a one bedroom flat." she waited for a response of some sort, but got nothing. So she continued. "You've been out of it for months already Sakura. Do you even remember the last time you were sober?" Ino scolded. "Everyday, I come visit and you're always drunk off your ass. What if I didn't come by today? You could have fallen asleep and sunk into the water and drown! What would Naruto say if I had to tell him his friend drowned in her bathtub?!"

Sakura remained silent throughout the whole speech. She didn't feel like dealing with Ino's lectures. As soon as she was dry and dressed, Sakura mustered as much strength as she could and pushed Ino away. "Go home Ino." she slurred.

"No. You need help Sakura. What's been going on with you? Ever since you came back from that mission in Grass-"

"Don't you dare say another word about that mission! I swear to god, our friendship be damned, I'll-"

"You'll what?" Ino challenged. "You'll hit me? Never talk to me again? What are you, five?" Ino shook her head and laughed. "What friendship do we have? You're always holed up in your apartment and you haven't been yourself since that mission and I..." Ino looked away and bit back a sob. "I want the old Sakura back."

Sakura stared at Ino with unfocused eyes. "Go home."

Ino smiled ruefully and gave a soft laugh. "You're just like him Sakura. You're just fucking like him." And with that, Ino turned and left the apartment.

Sakura staggered a bit and fell against her wall, holding herself up with what little strength she had. They had never been the best of friends, but Ino was one of the few who bothered to visit her anymore. The only other people she saw were Tsunade, Shizune, Naruto and Hinata. Occasionally Kakashi, Sai and Yamato would stop by when they weren't on missions. But they knew. They knew everything about why Sakura was the way she was.

Sakura pushed herself up from the wall and stumbled into her bedroom, falling face first into her bed. Tears welled in her eyes, a few sobs shook her body as she grabbed her pillow and held it tightly to her body. She sat up suddenly, clutching her chest with one hand while the other covered her mouth as she started to cough and dry heave. After a few minutes, the coughing stopped and she pulled her hand away to stare at her bloody palm. _Forgive me Ino… _her eyes fluttered closed as she fell back onto the bed. Her face was buried in her pillows and her hand fell palm-up next to her.

* * *

For the past three days, it had done nothing but rain. And frankly, he was getting fed up with the weather. The constant rain meant having to waste time searching for a village or a cave to hide away in until it stopped. Sitting at the mouth of a cave deep in the waterfall country, Sasuke closed his eyes and listened to the falling rain. Sometimes the sound helped him to think. But his moment of quiet was cut short by two loud screams. Sighing deeply, he stood up and began to walk back towards his companions. They'd wind up killing each other if he didn't break up their fights.

"What the hell bitch?!"

Sasuke walked up to see Suigetsu holding his head while Karin stood over him with an arrogant smirk on her face. Juugo sat by the fire, where Sasuke told him to stay, staring at the flames. "Serves you right you hentai!"

"I'm not being a hentai! I'm stating the obvious!"

As though she just noticed him, and he think that she actually had just noticed, Karin looked up and squealed as she ran towards Sasuke and went to grab his arm. "Sasuke-kun! Suigetsu was saying all sorts of nasty things to me!" She whined.

He side-stepped her easily and moved to sit down by the fire. He never cared for her invading his space, and he didn't think that she'd ever understand that so he gave up trying and just flat out ignored her. "Quit trying to rape the poor guy Karin. We've been with him for how long and you get rejected every time. Obviously he doesn't want you."

Sasuke tuned them out as Karin screeched yet again and began screaming at Suigetsu. He leaned back against the wall and pulled a knee up and rested his right arm over it. Suigetsu's question rang in his mind. How long had it been?

It had been eight years since he first left Konoha, and five years since he killed Orochimaru and Itachi. Shortly after killing Itachi though, Madara told Sasuke the truth about his older brother as well as the people responsible for giving the order to eliminate the clan. After attacking Konoha and killing the people Madara told him about, he killed Madara and left. And hadn't been back since.

Idly, he wondered what his old team was doing. He didn't care though. It was more out of curiosity then anything. He wanted to know if they had been strong enough to survive the fight against Akatsuki as well as his own attack. Though even if they had survived, they would still be weak and useless, compared to him at least.

Suigetsu looked over at Sasuke's far away gaze and nudged his shoulder. Sasuke looked at him out of the corner of his eyes and glared. "What?"

"So I hear that your old village was rebuilt and they just finished the last of the repairs a few months ago."

Sasuke didn't really see the point. "And?"

"The Rokudaime Hokage gathered a new council and made some new laws."

"I fail to see why I should care."

"The Hokage is that weirdo friend of yours that we came across when we attacked five years ago."

That seemed to get his attention. "Hn." Sasuke turned back to the fire and snorted.

"It's true." Juugo said, catching all of their attention. "I heard from some of the villagers a few days ago that he became Hokage after we left. He married the Hyuuga heir too."

Karin nodded. "Yeah, I heard something like that too. I think the Godaime is on his new council." She sat next to Sasuke, slowly scooting closer to him when she thought he wasn't looking.

"Yeah and his advisor? She's an ANBU medic. She's pretty hot." Suigetsu wiggled his eyebrows as he looked at Sasuke.

Sasuke continued to stare at the fire. He hadn't cared about the village gossip as they passed through. So it wasn't a wonder that he hadn't known.

"Oh the things I'd like to do with her! She's hotter than any woman I've come across. She's passed the Godaime in pretty much everything. She's ranked as S-Class in the Bingo Book. Man, I know I have that book here somewhere…" He fished around in his pack and held it up when he found it.

"Karin scoffed. "Yeah right. I bet she got there by sleeping her way up. And besides, I'm perfect. There's no way she beat me in looks or power." She said as she leaned into Sasuke's arm. He glared at her and she just smiled back at him before he pushed her off.

Suigetsu snorted. "Nope. She's got you beat. In every category. She's like every man's wet dream." Karin gagged at his words while Juugo smiled. "Ah, here she is." He held the book up and thrust it in Karin's face. "See? She's hot. Even a woman would have to agree."

Karin snatched the book out of his hands and read through the listed information. "Pft. I don't think it's real. There's no way she could look like that naturally. If she's the Godaime's student, obviously she took the old woman's technique."

Suigetsu gave her a fox-like grin. "I think you're jealous."

Karin threw the book at his head and stomped her foot on the ground. "And I think you're an idiot!"

And thus, their fighting began anew.

Juugo grabbed the book that lie forgotten on the ground. He flipped through until he found the page he was looking for. "I think she's cute." He read the page and held it towards Sasuke. "What do you think Sasuke-san? Perhaps you recognize her?" Karin and Suigetsu's fighting stopped when they saw Sasuke staring at the page.

Staring down at the page, and if he weren't an Uchiha he'd have a funny look on his face, and he scowled. "This can't be right." He muttered under his breath.

"Hm? What can't be right?" Karin asked as she pushed her glasses up her nose.

"It's Sakura."

Suigetsu smiled. "Yup. Haruno Sakura. Most sought out Kunoichi in Fire Country if I heard the villagers right."

Sasuke snapped the book shut and glared at the fire before tossing the book at Suigetsu. "We're leaving."

"Where are we going?" Juugo asked as he gathered his pack.

Sasuke stared out into the rain. "Konoha."

* * *

Naruto looked at the four people standing before him. "Any questions?"

"No sir."

Naruto looked over at Tsunade and she nodded. "Now, you are not to let anyone see you leave, no one is to see you return, and no one is to know about this mission at all."

The team all nodded.

"Hm. Well, I have a question." They all turned to see Kakashi standing in the doorway with a red faced Yamato. "Why did I come across Yamato tied up in the streets this morning?"

They all turned to look at Naruto who poofed and then one of the ANBU took his mask off and Naruto was laughing while rubbing the back of his head. "I uh… figured no one would notice…"

Tsunade punched Naruto in the back of the head and sighed as he rolled around on the ground. "Yamato, your team will fill you in. Now, get out." The ANBU team left leaving Kakashi, Tsunade and Naruto alone.

"Naruto, you know you aren't allowed to leave." Kakashi muttered.

"Yeah well, he was my teammate. I promised her I would bring him home." Naruto looked down at the ground.

A knock on the door caught all their attention and before Naruto could say a word, Ino stomped into the room. "I can't do it anymore."

"Eh?"

Ino glared at Naruto. "She kicked me out of her apartment. She was drunk off her ass, and she was drugged up. She was in the tub Naruto! She could have killed herself!"

"Damn…" Naruto muttered. "Maybe Hinata-chan can stay with her for a while…"

Ino looked between Kakashi and Tsunade. She'd seen them look like this before. Right before Sakura was sent on that mission to Grass… "Oh, don't tell me." Ino growled. "Not again! He's probably dead by now. When are you going to-"

Naruto jumped up off the floor and glared at her. "Get out Ino."

"You need to get over it. Sasuke is gone!"

"Ino." She looked at Tsunade. "Leave. I'll talk to you later." She nodded stiffly and bowed before leaving.

"Naruto… you knew this would happen when they found out that you were still looking for him." Kakashi said.

He looked down. He knew. And he didn't care what the others thought. He was Hokage. His word was law. "I know."

"Well, onto other matters. What are we going to do about Sakura?" Kakashi asked. He saw Naruto clench his fists and sigh angrily. "We should have someone stay with her."

"Yeah, but who? Ino won't do it, and Hinata-chan can't take care of Sakura-chan and cover as my assistant." Naruto looked to Tsunade. "Maybe you can stay with her for a while until we can find Sasuke…"

Tsunade shook her head. "I have to run the council."

"Then we'll just have to…" He cut himself off. He sighed dejectedly. There was nothing they could do. Save admitting her into the hospital for observation. And everyone knew how well that'd go over with her.

"There's only one way to do this Naruto." Tsunade murmured. "She'll forgive you."

With a heavy sigh, Naruto snapped his fingers and an ANBU appeared in the right corner of his office. "Yes, Hokage-sama?"

Naruto closed his eyes. "Bring Haruno Sakura here immediately."

"Yes, sir." And disappeared.

"I hope you're right about this Baa-chan…"

TBC….


End file.
